The American singer-songwriter, guitarist and, one-third of Boygenius joins withTorres, aka indie singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott in a long-planned collaboration in musically straight pedal-steel country narrative love songs, but threaded with queer narratives. The genre has been approached in a variety of mixes and alternative artists in the last few years, from Ireland’s CMAT to Beyoncé’s bold, stylish black reclamation on her 2024 album Cowboy Carter, but these songs make a more subtle deviation from the norm. The most obvious, and drily witty, is Tuesday, a Torres-led number about having a relationship with a girl of that name, but having an awkward situation which unfurls. “Next thing I know, her mama's calling, telling her daughter/ Just the thought of it made her sick over the toilet … Instead of backing me up, Tuesday melted right down/ Asked me to write her mother and say, sorry for the confusion / That of course there had been no sin / To emphasize how much I love Jesus and men.” There’s a religious thread in the album, not merely in the title, but also in various songs, playing with torn emotions and a culture of guilt and shame. Sugar In The Tank is another standout, packed with vivid and also emotionally rich lines (“I love you sleeping on my dead left arm”) and extended metaphors (“Sitting outside with the engine running / Just waiting on me to change.”). The country genre stays within traditional musical tramlines, but this is mostly strong, candid songwriting, their voices blending well, with other highlights including opener Dirt, the powerful Bottom Of A Bottle, and perhaps best of all, the beautiful melody of Sylvia, other stories reverberating outside the stories actually told. Out on Matador Records.
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